GODFREY – Spencer Sholl’s debut as the new coach of the WaterWorks Marlins was postponed Thursday evening when the start of the new Southwestern Illinois Swimming Association season was postponed when storms moved into the area right before the Marlins’ season opener against Summers Port’s Sharks in Godfrey.
The meet was rescheduled for July 10 at Summers Port.
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Sholl, who swam for the Marlins, Edwardsville High and the Edwardsville YMCA Breakers, took over the Marlin program when Elizabeth McPherson stepped down as WaterWorks’ coach following last season. “Last year, I was the assistant coach and when I was offered the head coaching job this year, I was really excited to take it,” Sholl said. “There were a lot of really good people that I saw like Elizabeth, Max Fires and Josh Jacobson that had coached before me; I really wanted to continue that on and hopefully be as good of a coach as they were.”
McPherson, who currently swims for Illinois State in Normal, stepped down as Marlins coach for this season. “She’s just moving on to other things,” Sholl said. “I’m really glad she left a good legacy for me to continue into; she did a great job here – I’m hoping we can be as successful as we were last year and grow onto that moving into this year.”
The Marlin program has grown numbers-wise going into 2018. “We’re bigger than ever,” Sholl said. “We’ve got so many kids and it’s so good; we’ve got a lot of kids who are starting off who already have a lot of talent, so I’m hoping we can build off that and use those talents to our advantage.
“We’re really lucky that our team has a lot of young kids; we lack a little bit in the older group, but it’s promising that we have so many young kids because they can continue on as they can continue on as we go through. I’m looking forward to the fact that these kids are going to get older and they’ll stick with it and have an even bigger team going forward.”
Sholl is bringing much experience in the pool to the Marlin job. “I swam for the (Edwardsville Y) Breakers for 10 years, I swam for (Edwardsville High’s boys team) for three years; I was our my junior year for my two shoulder surgeries.”
Sholl is currently attending SIU-Carbondale, but not swimming for the Salukis. “I was coaching the Saluki Swim Club down there, a USA (Swimming) team; I’ve been staying busy with swimming and I’m happy to get to come back and keep doing this; I’m majoring in physiology on a per-physician's assistant track.”
The SWISA Novice Meet is set for 8:30 a.m. Saturday at WaterWorks, with Collinsville’s Splash City visiting WaterWorks at 6 p.m. June 17 for the Marlins’ home opener.
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